Human Impacts on Antarctica and Threats to the Environment
- Overview

Antarctica is certainly the most pristine place on earth
although it is not as unspoiled as may be imagined. For more
than a hundred years people have travelled to Antarctica and
most parts have now been visited. More than just footprints
have been left and more than just photographs have been taken.

Some Antarctic species have been taken to the verge
of extinction for economic benefit. Others have been killed
incidentally or disturbed, soils have been contaminated, untreated
sewage has been discharged into the sea and rubbish that will
not decompose or break down for hundreds of years has been left
behind in even the remotest parts.

Recently attitudes have changed as we begin to realise that
there are few untouched and unvisited places left on earth
and that they are tremendously important to humanity.

Antarctica's clean air, water and ice of are
of importance to science for understanding how the
Earth's environment is changing both naturally and as a
result of human activity. Tour operators are tapping
a huge and ever increasing demand to visit the Earth's last
great wilderness.

Both science and tourism have the potential to damage the
very qualities that draw them to Antarctica.

The concern for the environmental management of Antarctica
is how to make good past damage and how to reduce the current
and future impacts.

The main threats facing
Antarctica:

In approximate order of the assessed threat as of
2014 (reference)

1 - Climate change
/ Global warming,
resulting in a warming of the sea and loss of sea ice and land-based ice, this
is greatest long-term threat to the region. Already some
ice shelves have collapsed and ice slopes and glaciers have
retreated. Oceanic acidification (from extra dissolved carbon
dioxide) is already leading to the loss of some marine snails
thought to have a significant part to play in the oceanic
carbon cycle. The breeding populations and ranges of some
penguin species have already been altered.

2 - Fishing, both
legal and illegal.
Much of the world's oceans are over-fished, the chances
are that if investments into the kinds of boats and fishing
gear needed for Antarctica are made, then it too will suffer
this same fate. Fishing for krill could be particularly
significant as these are at the bottom of many Antarctic
food chains. There are already illegal fishing boats that
ignore current regulations.

3 - Invasive species.
Organisms that are not native to Antarctica are being taken
there on ships, attached as seeds to boots and clothing.
Some of these that are able to, now survive there as a consequence
of global warming. Rats in particular are a threat to Antarctica's
ground nesting birds which are particularly vulnerable as
there are no native ground based predators for them to be
experienced in defending themselves against.

4 - Tourism,
with the accompanying pollutants that accompany ships and
aircraft, the possibility of oil spills and the effects
of lots of people and infrastructure on wildlife and the
wider environment.

5 - Pollution,
CFC's and other ozone depletors are responsible for the
ozone hole that has appeared over Antarctica for over 30
years, chemicals produced thousands of miles away are found
in Antarctic ice and in the bodies of wildlife. Discarded
equipment, chemicals and oil can degrade the landscape.
Fishing nets, plastic, lines, hooks etc. carried by the
sea can result in great suffering or loss of life by birds,
fish and marine mammals.

7 - Exploration and
exploitation of mineral reserves, oil and gas.
Not currently economically viable, but as the need becomes
greater and as technology advances, this will become an
increasing threat. The Antarctic Treaty bans all mining
and mineral exploitation indefinitely, though this comes
up for review in 2048 (in other words, it isn't really banned
indefinitely at all).

8 - Direct impacts
associated with the development of infrastructure for scientific
bases and programmes. The construction of
buildings and related facilities such as roads, fuel storage,
runways etc.

Global Impacts

Antarctica is an important laboratory for research
into the global impacts of the industrialized world.

Lakes on Signy Island in the Maritime Antarctic for instance
have shown possibly the fastest local response to regional
climate found anywhere on Earth. Average lake temperatures
having risen by 0.9°C in 15 years while temperatures in
the surrounding seas have stayed constant.

Global change may have effects that impact directly on the
Antarctic environment and its fauna and flora. Global warming
for example may contribute to break-up ice-shelves causing loss
of habitat for animals dependent on the ice-shelf as well as
the effect of increasing sea level on low-lying regions in the
rest of the world.

Increasing Ultra Violet (UV) radiation due to the ozone
hole may cause changes to phytoplankton communities and
could have effects up the food chain.

Antarctica is a sensitive indicator of global change.
The polar ice cap holds within it a record of past atmospheres
that go back tens or even hundreds of thousands of years, allowing
study of the earth's natural climate cycles against which
the significance of recent changes can be judged.

Past Sins

In the earlier days of Antarctic programmes (well into the
1980's) waste was dealt with in one of three ways:

1- If it was flammable, it was burnt

If it wasn't flammable it was:

2 - thrown into the sea

3 - put to one side and ignored

There was also a variation of the second approach whereby
larger sinkable items such as broken and useless vehicles were
taken out onto the sea ice and left. When the ice broke up in
the spring, the rubbish on them would break out too and they
would be dumped further out at sea as the floe they were on
melted or tipped up.

Further inland, rubbish was often dropped down a crevasse
or just left where it was. In the harsh Antarctic environment,
even large items such as empty oil drums can be blown by the
wind for miles from where they were originally dumped so spreading
the problem. Broken down or crashed vehicles and aircraft were
usually just left where they were, many are still there today.

A part of the Antarctic Treaty called the Madrid Protocol
(because it was agreed on at an Antarctic Treaty conference
in Madrid) requires that national Antarctic programmes clean-up
abandoned work sites and waste tips so long as the process of
clean-up does not cause greater adverse impacts or cause the
removal of historic sites or monuments.

A cleaner future

Environmental
audits are now carried out around bases, on land and in
the sea to assess the impact that the base and its activities
is having on the area around it. Any activity is bound to have
some degree of disturbance to the environment, vehicle exhausts,
wildlife disturbance, waste of various types being produced.
Waste of all kinds is returned to the country of origin wherever
possible.

An increasing number of bases are using alternative energy
sources, the Australian Mawson, Belgian Princess Elisabeth,
New Zealand Scott and US McMurdo bases all have wind powered
electricity generators - a fairly obvious choice for one of
the windiest places on earth! But problematic as the wind is
so strong so often that the wind turbines are at risk of damage.
The Belgian Princess Elisabeth base (pictured) is a zero emissions
base that runs entirely on wind and solar energy

Protected areas are being set up with various levels
degrees of protection, no vehicles allowed, limitations to annual
visitors, or even no people allowed at all in some cases.

Expeditioners are now educated far better about protecting
the environment, expeditioners, tourists and other visitors
to Antarctica are now guided by codes of conduct.